What:
A one-day conference focusing on volunteer management issues in adult
literacy programs. This year's theme is student and volunteer retention.
Who Should Attend: Volunteer coordinators,
managers, teachers, and other staff members involved in volunteer
management/support. Where: Earle
Brown Heritage Center, 6155 Earle Brown Drive, Minneapolis, 55430 Click
here for directions to the conference.
When: 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
How to Register: Go to
www.theMLC.org/vmc and register online (or download and print a form to
fax or mail).
Cost: $40.00 (Those coming from programs 50 or more miles
from the Twin Cities will be provided with free lodging the night before the
conference.)

If you understand why people volunteer and can
tailor your interaction and volunteer opportunities to embrace and support
motivational differences you will see an increase in volunteer longevity.
Learn the basic process and skills to recruit, supervise and recognize
volunteers to determine their volunteer motivations and how that leads to
volunteer retention.

“Boomers are coming…Boomers are coming” is a
call we have heard for years. It is true, the Baby Boomers are retiring and
we need to design best practices to invite them to volunteer with our
organizations. However, there are other trends to be aware of and we need
to be thoughtful of how each trend will impact our program and management
techniques. Gain insight, project future needs, make proactive decisions
and anticipate challenges by talking through volunteer trends.

Dealing with Difficult Volunteers – Heather Cox

The shadow side of volunteer management is
dealing with volunteers whose own agenda or awareness of their contributions
might not necessarily mesh well with our organizational missions. How do we
manage volunteers who are challenging? Come to this workshop and learn some
strategies for coaching as well as ways to terminate volunteers while
protecting your programs. We will discuss ways to determine motivation and
feedback styles, as well as learn from each other best practices for dealing
with difficult volunteers!

Come discuss the various roles that volunteers
can take on in the classroom, and how to ensure that these roles are helpful
to the learning process and are not adding additional prep time for the
teacher. We will also examine how to work with volunteers so that they are
being supported and their needs as well as the needs of the learners are
being met. Finally, we will look at different ways for coordinators to
connect with volunteers outside the classroom to offer additional support
and encouragement.

When 1 + 1 = 3 – Volunteer Issues Committee

When collaborations between volunteer literacy
programs and other organizations are well-planned and effectively managed,
they can be beneficial for all involved. This session will provide an
overview of the key elements of effective partnerships, a panel discussion
with examples of some specific and highly successful literacy
collaborations, and an opportunity for participants to begin their own
planning for community collaboration

12:45
– 2:00 Concurrent Sessions

Story by Story : A Contextual Phonics Model and Curriculum for American-born
Adults “Learning to Read” – Marn Frank

The population of American-born adults with
low literacy skills (GE 0.0-1.9) is a challenging group to serve and retain.
They require individual or small group instruction, tend to make slow
progress, are easily discouraged, and often have inconsistent attendance.
Story by Story, a research and practitioner-based contextual phonics model
and curriculum, was developed for this population. It includes informal word
analysis assessment, sequential word study, and fluency/comprehension
stories for individual or small group instruction. Participants in this
workshop will receive step-by-step training in the model, a word analysis
inventory, and the aligned Level I curriculum for teacher or tutor use.

Come to this interactive workshop to learn
about six strategies and resources for addressing learner persistence in ABE
programs based on research from the National Center for the Study of Adult
Learning and Literacy (NCSALL). Workshop participants will consider what
they might do to address learner persistence in their own programs, classes
and tutoring sessions. Participants will receive handouts with strategies
and resources for addressing adult learner persistence, motivation and
retention.

What Does Meaning Volunteer Recognition Look Like? – Gail Irish

This is an old topic, but people are always
coming up with new ideas or proving that the tried and true ones are still
effective. How can we recognize volunteers in ways that make them feel
invested in the program, affirm their contribution, and make the programs
stronger for our learners as well? Come and find out what other coordinators
are doing, and bring your own ideas to share.

The Karen are an ethnic group from Burma
(Myanmar) who are coming to the US as refugees. This session will provide
participants with an introduction to the history, culture and language of
the Karen people. Presenters will also discuss how Karen learners function
in the classroom and strategies for working effectively with Karen learners.

You Are Here, But Where Are the Volunteers? Developing a Volunteer Outreach
Plan – MLC Staff

Are you lost when it comes to volunteer
outreach? Share your successes and mishaps on the road of finding the
perfect volunteers. Discover the tools the MLC has to offer you and your
program along the way. Together we can map out a path to the land of 10,000
volunteers.

Preparing lesson plans takes extra time but it
helps tutors succeed and students learn. Most ABE volunteers have limited
experience designing lesson plans and little extra time outside of class. In
this session you will learn about the benefits of having easy to follow
lesson plans ready for your tutors so that they can focus on teaching and be
more relaxed and creative in the classroom.

Want national or
international literacy statistics? Need to know the best ways to use
volunteers to reduce your learner waiting lists? Interested in how to
increase the intensity of instruction in your volunteer-based literacy
program? It’s all available to you free on the Proliteracy Web site at
www.proliteracy.org/resources.

Here at the MLC Learning
Center – North Side we have come up with a great way for all of our
volunteers to keep up with center happenings as well as to document what is
happening in their classes from day to day. We have started a Yahoo Groups
Web site. On the Web site there is a page for each class level where each
volunteer logs on and writes their update about their class. Once this is
entered, volunteers from other days of the week can log on anytime to see
what has been happening in class. It has been such a great tool for all of
our volunteers, especially those who like to do a lot of their planning at
home. They can log on from their home computers and all the information is
right there. We also use the Web site to send out announcements, post useful
Web sites and pictures. It can also be used by volunteers to post messages
to others about finding subs for their classes. It really is a very
wonderful tool!

For gift-giving that
will make a difference many times over, shop at Ten Thousand Villages on
Grand Avenue in St. Paul on Friday, December 14 from 5 – 8 p.m. This unique
gift shop will donate 20% of all proceeds during this time period to MLC.
Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair trade income to Third World
artisans by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North
America. So shop for holiday gifts like jewelry, folk art, decorations,
musical instruments and children’s toys on December 14 from 5 – 8 and you’ll
be benefiting two great causes!